PolyCycl launches ‘Generation VI’ chemical recycling technology to address India’s plastic pollution crisis
Patented ContiFlow Cracker™ technology enables the conversion of single-use and other hard-to-recycle waste plastics into new, food-grade quality polymers and other low-carbon materials.
Developed 100% in India over 10+ years of R&D, the technology provides the critical 'missing link' towards building a true plastic-to-plastic circular economy and enhancing rates of plastic recycling both in India and globally.
Highly cost-effective, modular and continuous design (15-100 TPD per line) ensures project EBITDAs exceeding 50%.
Technology supports India’s ambitious EPR targets, including the generation of virgin-quality recycled content for food-contact packaging applications.
PolyCycl, a circular economy technology startup based in Chandigarh, India, today announced the launch of its patented Contiflow Cracker™ Generation VI chemical recycling pyrolysis technology. This fully indigenous innovation addresses India’s escalating plastic waste problem by enabling the conversion of hard-to-recycle plastics —such as single-use grocery bags and food-contaminated packaging— into food-grade polymers, renewable chemicals and sustainable fuels.
The launch is the result of over a decade of focused R&D, involving 150+ man-years of effort. The Generation VI technology is protected by multiple international patents and facilitates the creation of a plastic-to-plastic circular economy, where commonly used plastics (e.g. polyolefin packaging) no longer need to be down-cycled, incinerated or landfilled at the end of their life. Instead, they can be continuously recycled in a closed-loop, without any loss of quality.
PolyCycl’s Generation VI technology combines Contiflow Cracker™ - the company’s fully-continuous thermo-chemical pyrolysis process with its proprietary PyOilClean™ refining technology. This combination transforms low-grade plastics into liquified hydrocarbon oils, which are then purified to remove contaminants like halogens and hetero-atoms. The resulting chemical feedstocks are versatile raw materials used by the petrochemical and hydrocarbon industries to produce a wide range of premium low-carbon materials, including circular polymers. The technology, in essence, turns such low-grade waste plastics into a resource for manufacturing new materials.
“India generates over 10.2 million tonnes of plastic waste annually, with more than 40% of this being single-use plastics like grocery bags and flexible packaging. Traditional recycling methods struggle to handle this waste, which often ends up clogging drains, littering streets, or polluting waterways,” says Amit Tandon, Founder and CEO of PolyCycl. “PolyCycl’s technology offers a novel solution for recycling such plastics by thermally breaking them down to their molecular building blocks (oligomers), which can then be re-constituted to create new virgin-quality materials. Our technology, honed over a decade of R&D, delivers high conversion yields of 65-75% and generates chemical feedstocks that have been qualified for the circular economy by multiple petrochemical companies globally.”
The technology’s patented fully-continuous process architecture provides ease-of-scale and development of modular lines each capable of processing between 15 and 100 tons per day (TPD) of plastics. Importantly, the patented design offers significant cost efficiencies, with capital costs up to one-half to one-fourth of competitive technologies in Europe and the US, while delivering project EBITDA exceeding 50%.
India’s Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) rules mandate 10% recycled content in flexible packaging and 30% in rigid plastic packaging by 2025–26. PolyCycl’s technology supports these targets, enabling production of recycled virgin polymers that meet stringent requirements for contact-sensitive applications, including for food and pharmaceutical packaging.
With three out of four FMCG products in India packaged in flexible formats, single-use plastics pose a key challenge in the nation’s journey toward building a sustainable economy for plastics. “The plastic waste problem is complex and requires multiple solutions,” says Mr. Tandon. “From better design for recyclability to stronger EPR mechanisms and innovative recycling technologies, each step plays a role. Chemical recycling is one piece of the puzzle, and we hope our work helps advance the adoption of circular economy practices across industries.”
About PolyCycl
PolyCycl is a circular economy technology company tackling one of the most critical environmental challenges of our times - plastic waste. Its advanced chemical recycling technology enables a true plastic-to-plastic circular economy, converting hard-to-recycle plastics, such as single-use polythene bags and packaging films, into circular feedstocks for manufacturing of new food-grade quality plastics, sustainable fuels and renewable chemicals. The company’s fully-continuous conversion technology enables scalability and economic efficiencies, with a capital cost that is 1/2 to 1/4th of global counterparts, while simultaneously facilitating low operational costs and project EBITDA exceeding 50%.
Developed over a decade of R&D spanning 150,000+ man-hours, the technology is protected by multiple international patents. In addition to the planetary benefits of combating plastic pollution, the technology holds the potential to reduce the usage of fossil resources in manufacturing of new plastics by up to 75-90%, while also reducing associated greenhouse gas emissions by 40%.
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